Espen Storø

Espen Storø — Norwegian keyboardist — was Circus Maximus's first keyboard player, from the band's founding in 2000 until 2005. The keyboard work on The 1st Chapter (2005), the debut album, is his. That record matters beyond its own content: it is what presented Circus Maximus as a progressive metal band placing vocal melody at the centre, at a time when the genre defined itself mainly by instrumental display. The formula the band would develop on Isolate (2007) is already sketched there. The keyboard has a structuring role in this design — it creates the harmonic layers giving the songs their breadth and shares solo passages with the guitar, in the dialogue that has been progressive metal's mark since Dream Theater. Storø left the group in 2005 and was succeeded by Lasse Finbråten. He is the only member Circus Maximus's original line-up lost: the other four are still together today.